The field of the present invention relates to a clamp for attaching a device to a cylindrical object. In particular, the invention relates to a clamp for attaching a filter and matte box assembly to the iris rods of a motion picture or video camera.
As set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,411, it is conventional for a filter and matte box assembly to be provided with a clamping mechanism built into the assembly. This clamping mechanism is sized to fit a specific size of iris rod, which projects from the front of the camera. The filter and matte box assemblies have been made to fit different sized iris rods so that when one assembly is used with a particular sized iris rod clamp and then a new camera is used having a different iris rod size, a new filter and matte box assembly was required because of the clamp no longer fitting the iris rod on the new camera. In the alternative, the clamp on the assembly may be replaceable, which requires a selection of clamps.
Since different camera manufacturers use different sized iris rods on their cameras, switching the entire filter and matte box assembly or the clamps to fit the different iris rods when changing cameras is an undesirable step. Also, this requires a camera rental company to maintain a large inventory of different sizes of clamps. Thus, it has been desirable to have a filter and matte box assembly that has a clamp that can fit varying sizes of iris rods to avoid having to replace the entire filter and matte box assembly. Having a clamp that can fit varying sizes of iris rods is also desirable because it is less expensive than having a number of filter and matte box assemblies or clamps. Therefore, a filter and matte box assembly that is capable of clamping to iris rods of several different sizes would be more economical and efficient and would reduce the number of matte box assemblies required.
The present invention provides an improved clamp for attaching objects to cylindrical objects of varying diameters. The multi-jaw clamp of the present invention includes two housings connected by a hinge for holding a pair of multi-jaw cylinders. The multi jaw cylinders contain at least two curved sections to attach around at least two different diameters of cylindrical objects, such as iris rods. The multi-jaw cylinders can be rotated to fit different diameters of cylindrical objects. The housing is locked into place around the cylindrical object by a locking mechanism attached at the free ends of the housings.